Sunday, April 15, 2012

destiny, Dalí y drawings

Hello all.

Slowly taking small steps online and to writing, wanted to share some thoughts and a little Dalí.
It has been over a year that I needed to be checked-out in a both figurative and literal way. This blog has continued to grow and connect with many, influence many and I am so proud of it. Not only I admire the women that are part of it and have fond respect for each of our very different personalities and backgrounds. They are also superb friends, have been there in my darkest days and I love them very much. I do.

A fatal bicycle accident changed my life. Being reclusive and becoming a full time pedestrian is a new aspect of my life and a new perspective that I had not experienced in the last 10 years I have been mostly transporting myself around San Francisco on a bicycle. There is no pattern to grieving, and taking this one day at the time has been one way I have been able to somewhat deal with it. I am a big advocate of not forcing things at all, so little by little, here I am.

I don't believe in destiny much, but I do believe in the forces of the universe; how they somehow connect people at some point and how the world often becomes quite small. The outcome you take out of it and what stays with you is how you continue to deal with the future. I met one of my brother's school colleagues this past week and we had a pleasant talk over coffee and soup. We talked about his projects, classes him and my brother had together.

He took a large set of portraits of my brother for one of their photography classes 4 days before his accident. I admire his strength and initiative to get in touch with me. It was a powerful afternoon and I think we both needed that time to share memories, exchange thoughts and we both found a strong connection with our mutual love of film. He showed me a bunch of his short clips and school projects. He graduates college this year.

I leave you all with this trailer we both watched together while at the cafe. I still remember the first time I saw a Dalí drawing in elementary school and made me proud to always make my teachers 'upset' for having a mess of drawings and colors with most of my notes. All the way up to college, it is how my memory has worked, by drawing. I love drawing and I'm glad I have never stopped doing so. I think it is important to never stop doing certain things in order to connect within yourself.

A bicycle did change my life, and my life has changed because of a bicycle. So many things have changed and at this point and often it all feels like a blur, which somehow struggles to find meaning.

To conclude my thoughts this Sunday afternoon, here is a video from a collaboration between Spanish artist Dalí and American animator Disney released in 2003. The music is by Mexican song writer Armando Dominguez. Not sure if it has made the rounds on the internet at some point, but it has been nice to find myself almost entirely removed from the web for quite a bit.